'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' - Wyre Council leader questions Lancashire local government reorganisation

The leader of Wyre Council, Cllr Michael Vincent, has said the government should ‘scrap it and let us go about our jobs’ with regards to delays and uncertainty surrounding plans to abolish and replace all of Lancashire’s councils.

The Conservative leader of Wyre Council said ‘stop wasting money on this stuff’ as the government puts its controversial plans for local government reorganisation on hold.

The intervention comes after ministers announced that plans to overhaul Lancashire’s council structure had been paused while checks are carried out to ensure the process is lawful.

Cllr Vincent said: “They should just scrap it and let us go about our jobs - if it ain't broke, don’t fix it,” Wyre’s Conservative leader said. “Stop wasting money on this stuff - and what they would have wasted on it, they should release to local councils.

“We have spent so much time and money on preparing bids [for the suggested replacement council configurations] and then doing the work that's needed to implement the decision since it was made in July, that the government absolutely has to compensate us for this financially - and they should then just start funding us properly.”

The proposed reorganisation would see all 15 of the county's main local authorities abolished in April 2028, with four new, all-purpose councils taking their place. For Wyre, the plan would mean the creation of a new Fylde Coast unitary authority covering the existing areas of Fylde, Blackpool and Wyre.

The proposals were unveiled less than two months ago, after the government confirmed the size and shape of the councils it intended to create across Lancashire. The four proposed authorities were to cover North Lancashire, South Lancashire, the Fylde Coast and Pennine Lancashire.

They were due to take over in little more than 18 months from Lancashire County Council and the authorities covering Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Burnley, Chorley, Fylde, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Preston, Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire and Wyre.

But Angela Rayner announced in the Commons on Monday afternoon that the Lancashire revamp, the biggest change to the county's local government arrangements for more than 50 years, was being put on hold along with most of the other reorganisations under way across England.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government said that ‘in light of legal advice’ she wanted to satisfy herself that ‘the right process is in place [which] is robust and, of course, complies with the law’. She also announced a review of the reorganisation programme, raising questions over the future of the government's plans for local government restructuring.

The decision has left Lancashire's existing councils in local government limbo, with uncertainty over whether their planned abolition has merely been delayed or could ultimately be abandoned. One immediate consequence is that elections to establish the so-called ‘shadow’ versions of the replacement councils, which had been due to take place in May 2027, will no longer go ahead.

Those elections were intended to give the new authorities 11 months to operate alongside the councils they were due to replace. Instead, elections will be held next year for existing local authorities that would ordinarily have been due to stage them. That means 13 of Lancashire's 15 councils will see elections take place in 2027 (with exceptions for Rossendale and LCC).

The move suggests that, if the new councils are ultimately formed, their planned timetable could be pushed back by at least a year.

County Cllr Atkinson, the Reform UK leader at County Hall, has been a longstanding opponent of the proposed reorganisation and said the delay provided an opportunity to ensure Lancashire residents' views were heard. A public consultation held last year found that almost two thirds of 13,000 respondants wanted to retain the current ‘two-tier’ system.

Under the existing arrangements, Lancashire County Council is responsible for services including social care, highways and schools, while 12 smaller district authorities - including Fylde, Preston, Burnley, and Wyre - deal with services such as waste collection, parks, housing, and planning in their respective areas.

Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen already operate as all-purpose unitary authorities, providing all local services within their boundaries. Under the government's proposals, the new unitary councils would operate on a similar basis but across substantially larger areas.

Cllr Atkinson said: “I have consistently made clear that I do not believe local government reorganisation is the right course for Lancashire. Changing council structures on this scale would be costly and disruptive, with no guarantee that it would improve services or deliver better value for residents.

“I therefore welcome the decision to pause and review the process. It provides an important opportunity for ministers to reconsider whether such fundamental change is necessary and to listen properly to councils and communities across the county.”

The four proposed councils

The government said in July that it was minded to create four new local authorities for Lancashire and had already begun preparing for the Parliamentary process that would lead to their formation.

The proposed authorities were:

• North Lancashire – Preston, Lancaster and Ribble Valley.
• South Lancashire – Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire.
• Fylde Coast – Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre.
• Pennine Lancashire – Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Rossendale and Pendle.

For Fylde, the proposed change would have meant the borough council being replaced by the much larger Fylde Coast unitary authority, alongside the existing councils in Blackpool and Wyre.

The government's decision to pause the process now leaves the future shape of local government in Fylde and across Lancashire uncertain, while ministers carry out their review.